Scuttlebutt
by amaven
Summary: *One shot* Kenneth and Gabby are relieved to be safe from the Collector threat, but Kenneth's inappropriate curiosity is quickly aroused by a suspicious looking mark.


_*Thanks to everyone who subscribes and I'm sorry I haven't posted any stories in a while and haven't completed the ME2 portion of 'Epic', just know that it is still a work in progress and progress slows down and starts over with each DLC. Having a hard time choosing which sections to keep, change, or cut altogether. Even harder because we don't know what ME3 has in store for us yet._

_**This is set immediately after the suicide mission._

"Kenneth, Gabby, what are you two doing?" Commander Shepard asked.

"Working, ma'am. We want to get the Normandy back into top shape as soon as possible," Gabby answered promptly.

Commander Shepard looked between the two of them, "I appreciate the loyalty here, guys, but the whole crew deserves a break."

"Don't be silly, Commander. After saving our collective asses it's you who deserves a break," Kenneth said.

"We know we don't have to, but we want to. It helps take our mind off of what happened," Gabby said. "Listen, there wasn't a chance to say it before but…well…"

"Thank you," Kenneth said, emotion cracking his voice.

"No one gets left behind. Besides, Tali would be lonely without you guys around." She chuckled a bit and then said, "Don't work too hard, you guys. We all deserve a little reprieve."

Kenneth watched as Shepard went through the door and waited until he heard the elevator before turning to his partner, "Did you see that, Gabby?"

"See what?" she asked, disinterested as she looked over her terminal. EDI had kept things running smoothly while the crew had been abducted but after the damages to the Normandy there were a few rough days of work ahead of them.

"Commander Shepard's love-bite!"

Gabby let out a breath. There was a mark on Shepard's neck that could barely be seen over her armor's neckline. She had hoped Kenneth hadn't caught a look at it because his mind always jumped to the gutter, especially with the female crew. Often that was a source of amusement for Gabby, a chance to rile him up, but it was just wrong for that sort of topic to be about their Commander. "You don't know that was a hickey. She just fought through hundreds of Collectors to save us and the galaxy, it's a bruise."

"I know what I saw," Kenneth snapped at her. "Seems our Commander got frisky while on her way to save us. I wonder who?"

"You are such a pig," Gabby muttered.

But Kenneth couldn't help but think about it, "Can't be too hard to figure out. Only the ground team and Joker were here. Joker…hm, do you think he and the Commander…no, no I doubt it. I'm willing to bet she's rough in the bedroom, he wouldn't be durable enough for her."

"Now you are thinking about Shepard in bed?" Gabby barked at him.

"I'm just making observations," he said. "The only other man left would be Jacob…you don't think?"

Gabby looked thoughtful for the moment and her face turned red as she got interesting images in her mind. She shook her head, "I don't know. I think that…oh, I can't believe you pulled me into this!"

"You know, I don't think Jacob is enough of a man for her," Kenneth said. "Strong and deadly, sure…but I think she needs a man of skill and brains."

Gabby snorted, "You have no chance, Kenneth." She could always rely on Kenneth to make her laugh, usually at his expense.

"My lord, I have it! It was Miranda," Kenneth said, his eyes wide and hungry as he thought about it.

"You have to be joking," Gabby muttered, her eyes wide with surprise that he would even go there.

"Think about it! Both of them ultimately deadly, they lead the team like men, bark orders. They'd be great with each other," Kenneth said, swallowing back the excess salvia.

"Because they are two strong and independent leaders they have to be lesbians?" Gabby frowned.

"No, of course not! Not so much that they wouldn't mind a male companion to join, or even just watch," Kenneth said, almost dreamily.

"Ugh, I'm out of here before you bring Jack into the picture," Gabby said, working on closing down her station.

"Wow. Imagine the three of them," Kenneth muttered. "Or just Jack and Shepard. Yeah. Jack is fiery as hell, I bet the two of them could go at it for _ages_."

The door slid open and the two engineers turned with wide eyes as Jack stood there, "I heard my name."

Kenneth turned around, his face red and his eyes a bit afraid. Gabby laughed, "You did, Jack," she said, giving Kenneth a mischievous smile even as his eyes pleaded with her to drop it. "Maybe you can help Kenneth and I clear something up. He was just…"

"Shut up, woman," Kenneth nearly growled at Gabby.

"…talking about a distinguishing mark on Shepard's neck which he thinks is a love-bite. He wanted to know if you caused it," Gabby finished, looking at Kenneth rather victoriously.

Kenneth turned with his hands up defensively as Jack took a step into the room, "Not that I'm presuming that you prefer females or that I enjoy imagining that sort of thing, lass." Jack glared at him and he corrected with, "Ma'am."

Jack arched an eyebrow, "You think I gave Shepard some action, engineer-boy?"

"No, never!" Kenneth said as Jack took another step closer to him, silently wishing that Tali was down there so she could protect him…or at least call for help.

Jack laughed, "Shit, you are a little perv, aren't you?"

"You have no idea," Gabby muttered.

"Well I know it wasn't me," Jack said, leaning against the wall and crossing her arms over stomach casually. "I didn't think anyone on this ship was having any fun. And I didn't take Shepard for the type to get frisky with someone. So who do you think it was?"

Kenneth relaxed slightly, "We don't know. I was leaning towards Miranda, myself."

"The cheerleader up there? No way," Jack shook her head. "Shepard and Miranda are both dominant bitches, there would be more visible marks than just a hickey. What about the turian, Shepard is real friendly with him."

Kenneth shook his head, "I doubt it…not with those teeth."

"Good point," Jack muttered, relaxing a bit more and staring at the engineers thoughtfully. "Jacob would make a good bitch for Shepard. Good soldier boy, listens to orders."

"He was the first I thought of," Kenneth shrugged. "Must have been."

Jack snickered, "Lucky bastard. I hope he screws up, be fun to watch him get thrown out the airlock."

"But maybe you were on the right track before with Garrus," Kenneth said. "We weren't thinking of the entire team before. Shepard is very friendly with the alien crew."

"We? Don't bring me into this," Gabby snapped, turning to her terminal and trying to focus on work.

Jack bit her lip in thought, "You know, Samara has that real sensuous thing. Always having her girls hanging out, completely faithful to Shepard with that oath she gave."

Gabby put a hand to her forehead, "I can't believe this." She had hoped Jack's interruption would have put a stop to it, but now the crazy biotic was not only encouraging Kenneth but _helping_ him!

"You don't like it, leave," Jack said.

"Yeah, leave," Kenneth mimicked Jack's rude tone.

Gabby punched his arm, "You are such a dick!"

"Ow…sorry," Kenneth muttered, rubbing his arm. "You know asari get down with all different species and genders."

"You are calling our commander a xenophile!" Gabby hissed at him.

Jack's eyes widened and her smile grew, "The drell, Thane. I saw her going into his room when I went up for mess earlier."

"I don't know…I can't really see Shepard going for someone green," Kenneth said, looking a bit disturbed at the picture he was trying to form in his head.

"Well, unless you think Mordin or Grunt does something for her, we're out of options," Jack said. "Legion doesn't have a mouth. And Tali is pretty much out of the question."

"I don't know," Gabby said thoughtfully, and both of them turned to her with wide eyes. "It's just…I overheard her and the commander speaking last week. Tali trusts the commander completely, she would even consider linking environment suits with her if she could. But…no, never mind." Gabby shook her head and looked down, she didn't approve of the subject of conversation but she wasn't about to be kicked out of it either.

Kenneth grinned, "I wonder what she looks like under that mask, maybe Shepard finally found out."

The door slid open and the three of them turned to look, finding Shepard standing there. She was in her standard uniform now and the red mark was easily visible. Shepard looked curiously at Jack, "Hey, I was looking for you. When you are done socializing head up to the tech lab, Mordin gathered what you need to make those amps we talked about."

"Yeah, sure. When I'm done 'socializing' I'll head right on up there," Jack said, her eyes on the red mark on Shepard's neck and a grin on her face.

Shepard nodded, a little curious as to when Jack decided chatting up the crew members was a good idea. She looked at the trio and said, "I need to see Jacob, if anyone needs me I'll be in the armory."

Kenneth looked at Gabby as Shepard left, "See, it was Jacob."

Shepard leaned against one of the tables in the armory, she was staring down at her armor but she was far from focused on it. "You okay, Commander?" Jacob asked.

Shepard shrugged, "I think I walked into something strange in engineering, but I really don't have the energy to deal with it." She rubbed her forehead, "I just hope it doesn't come back to bite me in the ass later."

"If anyone deserves a break it's you," Jacob said, taking the helmet of her armor in his hands and looking it over. "Looks a bit scuffed but okay to me."

She pointed to a dent in the bottom of the helmet, "Right here, where it is supposed to connect to the collar of the armor. Damn thing pinched me. Check this out," she pointed to the red mark under her jaw.

"Yeah, don't worry, I can take care of this," Jacob said, pulling out his omni-tool and working in repairing the armor. "So what was going on in engineering?"

"Jack was actually hanging out with Kenneth and Gabby," she said, taking a step back to give him room to work. "I felt like I was walking in on something really awkward."

Jacob shrugged, "Probably just scuttlebutt. You know how the lower-decks like to chat."

"Yeah, yeah I know. I'm sure EDI will let me know if anything is getting out of hand," Shepard shook her head to get the strange feeling to go away. She glanced at EDI's virtual interface, wondering if the AI would pop up and assure her that there was nothing of importance happening on the engineering deck. When she didn't Shepard took that as the assurance that whatever was going on did not need her attention. "I'm going to finish my rounds."

"Sure. I'll have this fixed up in another fifteen minutes or so," Jacob said. "Talk to you later, Commander."


End file.
